Fight for Her #4: MMA New Adult Contemporary Romantic Suspense by JJ Knight Read Free Book Online Page B

she wants too.
    The guy from the gym in New York has called incessantly since I won the Vegas fight, reminding me I have a gym there to train if I want it. I have options. I just have to know what Maddie wants.
    The soft knock at my door sends my anxiety skyrocketing.
    I open the door, and there she is, looking a little harried.
    “Mother getting to you?” I ask.
    “Please tell me you have something to drink.” She passes by me and drops onto the sofa.
    “I don’t really have alcohol,” I say. “But I can go get something.”
    She shakes her head. “I don’t drink it either. You know. Because of Dad. It’s just an expression.” She looks around. “So this is your place.”
    “It’s pretty plain.”
    Maddie stands up again and walks around the living room. Seeing her in all the places I’d imagined feels like a mirage, as if she isn’t really here. My blood starts pounding, picturing her hair spilling across the sofa cushions.
    Patience. With Maddie, it always comes down to patience.
    She pauses in front of a giant poster of Anderson Silva. “Who’s this?”
    “Pretty much the greatest MMA fighter of all time. Longest win streak. Been fighting for decades. Had a documentary made about him.”
    “Wow,” she says.
    “People keep calling for him to retire, but he just loves it too much.”
    She turns to look at me. “You feel that way too.”
    Time to go for broke. “I thought so. But now I’m not so sure.”
    Maddie’s expression darkens and she turns back to the poster. “You have your big chance coming up.”
    I step closer and turn her around. “I’m more concerned about what my chances are with you.”
    “Parker…” Her voice trails off.
    I grip her shoulders. “Tell me what has happened. Tell me why you ran.”
    She shakes her head.
    Anger rises up in me. She can’t do this. She can’t just shut me out. “Maddie. You have to.”
    “I shouldn’t be here.” She looks past me at the door as if she expects someone to crash through it.
    “Is it Lani? Or Striker? Are they bothering you?”
    Her eyes flit back to mine and I see the fear there. God, what is she going through? “I won’t let them hurt you,” I say.
    Maddie shoves at me, hard. “What? Like in Vegas? When I was duct-taped and flung around a van and I didn’t know from one minute to the next if I was going to be raped or tossed out on the road?”
    “We know who our enemies are now,” I say, my voice getting dangerously loud. “Do you think you’re safer out there without me?”
    “I do!” she cries. “They’ve left me alone since we split up.”
    Shit. So they were messing with her. I snatch her arms and drag her up against me. “I’m going to take them down. I will do it.”
    Her fists pound against my chest. “You can’t stop them. If you kill them, you’ll go to jail. If you don’t, they won’t give up.”
    I tighten her against me, stilling her hands. “We know what we’re up against,” I say again.
    She struggles against me. “It’s not safe for me to be here. They will find out.”
    I hold her even tighter. “Then why did you come?”
    She goes still. “I couldn’t help it.”
    “Why?”
    “You found my dad.”
    I don’t believe her. “So, gratitude?” I push her away. “Did you come over here for a thank-you fuck?”
    She backs up. “No!”
    “Then say what you really feel.”
    Maddie keeps walking backward until she runs into the wall. “I can’t do that!”
    I’m so frustrated I want to punch through the plaster beside her head. “You will!” In two steps, I’m back up to her, my head exploding with her refusal to say it. I know what she’s feeling. I know it’s there.
    I won’t let her forget what we are.
    My hands reach for her, and I jerk her toward me. My mouth on hers is relentless, demanding, forcing her lips apart. She fights me, but she always fought me, and in that struggle is where her real feelings come alive.
    She smacks her hands against my arms and squirms away,